KBR responds to ex-worker’s gang-rape claim

HOUSTON—A woman claimed she was gang-raped in 2005 while working in Iraq for the Houston-based company KBR, but the company said those allegations are not true. Jamie Leigh Jones said she has been waiting for years for her attackers to be punished.

“I know I was drugged, I know I was raped,” she said. “And I have suffered for four years trying to get my day in court to be able to face the corporation that allowed it to happen, and my perpetrators.”

KBR is disputing Jones’ claims. They said she was a willing participant in the sex act, and they said the incident only involved only one man.

The company referred to the testimony of a KBR firefighter who said he had sex with Jones the night of the alleged assault. In an e-mail sent to 11 News, KBR said, “The firefighter admits that he and Ms. Jones had consensual sex. However he is certain that nobody else was present or had sex with Ms. Jones that night.”

Jones said the sex was not consensual and claimed she was bruised and bleeding after the incident.

Jones and her lawyer said KBR took a rape kit from a doctor who examined her, but they question the way it was handled. KBR said there was no foul play in regards to the rape kit.

“KBR has signed a chain-of-custody receipt showing that the sealed rape kit was turned over to the State Department. KBR has no knowledge of the contents,” a company statement said.

11 News contacted the State Department to find out if it does, in fact, have the 4-year-old rape kit.

They replied, “The rape kit is being stored in accordance with the U.S. Department of State standards.”

The case has now switched investigators. The Bureau of Diplomatic Security that conducted the investigation said they’ve turned the case over to the Department of Justice.

In 2008, three years after Jones said she was assaulted, a U.S. attorney presented the case to a grand jury.

Jones testified before the grand jury, but no one was indicted.

Now Jones is seeking her day in civil court. She sued KBR. Her lawyer claimed the company created the atmosphere that led to her attack.

“So what they did was they brought an unknowing victim to frankly a bunch of jackals who took advantage of the situation,” said Jones’ attorney, Todd Kelly.

KBR argues the matter can’t be handled in court because Jones is bound by her employment agreement that states all disputes must be handled in arbitration, privately.

A panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Jones, but now KBR is asking that the case be reviewed by the entire Fifth Circuit.

Through it all, Jones has shown determination and patience, but for now her battle isn’t over. It appears arbitration or a trial is a long way off.

11 News contacted the State Department to find out if it does, in fact, have the 4-year-old rape kit. They replied, “The rape kit is being stored in accordance with the U.S. Department of State standards.”
————————–
Excerpt From Jamie Leigh’s testimony:

State Department Diplomatic Security Special Agent, Lynn Falanga.

Some time around May 2007, Lynn Falanga called indicated she was not aware of a rape kit or any pictures of my injuries. I insisted the rape kit existed and forwarded a copy of KBR’s EEOC response to prove that the doctor had handed it over to a KBR employee at the hospital the night of the rape. It was a few days later that I received a call from Falanga stating she had found the rape kit but the pictures were missing and so were the doctor’s notes attached to the top of the rape kit.

Lynn Falanga has, on occasion, called me to tell me that there was “never a rape kit,” and that she had lost the rape kit. Eventually, she called to say that the rape kit had been located, but that the photographs and the “top copy” of the doctors’ notes were still missing. In October of 2007, Lynn Falanga called to ask if I had spoken with ABC for a 20/20 segment. I informed her that I had and that it was expected to air in October 2007. A couple days later Falanga called I was flown to Florida to meet with an Assistant United States Attorney (Tiffany Eggers) in Florida – who asked me about the rape almost two and a half years earlier. I asked Eggers where I should refer victims who contacted me through the Jamie Leigh Foundation and she responded “Don’t refer them to me or my office, but you may want to refer them to the Office of Victims of Crime.”